Yo Soy Boricua, Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas (I’m Boricua, Just So You Know)
The film will explore Rosie Perez’s burning question: why are Puerto Ricans so damn proud? It will open and close with the vibrant music, dancing and energy of thousands of people at the Puerto Rican Day Parade, shooting the parade this year and next from the perspective of our featured characters.
Our plan is to explore Puerto Rican culture using Rosie as the way in. Puerto Ricans live in the United States in a weird limbo-like status. They are citizens, but don’t vote for president. They’ve traveled back and forth to the island freely for a century, but still suffer extreme prejudice and economic roadblocks. Their physical features run the gamut from coal black to lily white.
They were the first Latino group to migrate to the East Coast of the U.S. in large numbers, but they get little credit from the more recent Latino immigrants for paving the way.
Until now, Rosie has never publicly talked about her personal issues, being Puerto Rican and American. Growing up, Rosie was at times told she wasn’t Puerto Rican enough; she was made fun of for having light skin and for not speaking Spanish. Raised in Brooklyn, Rosie grew up with one foot in the Spanish speaking, culturally proud home of an aunt, and the other with her mom, who only spoke English and wanted her family to assimilate.
“My mother wouldn’t let me speak Spanish, so I just became very quiet in public,” Rosie tells us. Rosie feels many Nuyoricans and Puerto Ricans struggle with similar issues: some are perceived as being too black or too white. Or, they’ve assimilated too much speaking English without an accent. If successful, they’re not Puerto Rican enough. “And people say Puerto Ricans are too Puerto Rican,” Rosie tells us. Then she lets out a loud, wonderful laugh, her whole body shaking, before becoming embarrassed and shy.
With Rosie as our guide, though not as host or appearing in every scene, we will explore the many facets of Puerto Rican culture in the United States. Our cameras were there when she appeared on New York’s biggest Spanish radio station, La Mega. Surprisingly, she understood the interviewers’ rapid-fire Spanish perfectly, but her part of the conversation was in English. Later, she tells us, “Many times they try to make me feel bad for speaking English. Those guys made me feel right at home.”
Rosie is fiercely proud of her heritage. Stabbing the air at the camera with tears in her eyes she says, “I’m here right now because my aunt worked four jobs…for me…for all of us.” Rosie knows well the story of Puerto Rican migrations, evacuations and forced sterilizations. “Many Puerto Rican Americans don’t know it all,” she tells us, “And I’d like to find out more about that.”
Rosie’s exploration of her culture will drive the film. The featured characters will be part of Rosie’s world: her sister Carmen, who was raised in Puerto Rico, her cousins Sixto, a struggling actor, and Freddie, an auto mechanic, his mother police officer mother, Sylvia, and 14 year old sister Jennifer, Rosie’s best friend Bobbito Garcia, a writer/DJ/ professional trick basketball player, her good friend, the actor Benicio del Toro, a self-proclaimed Puerto Rican history buff, and others. They will tell us about their own identity struggles as well as their successes, and share their hopes and dreams for themselves and their people. We’ll find them on location in their very different worlds.
At the end of June, 2004, we will accompany Rosie, Carmen and cousin Sixto to Miami, where they will finally meet close relatives for the first time. Rosie is part of the “illegitimate” side of the family. She’s never met the “legitimate” relatives, who were kept apart until now. Rosie’s great grandmother was her great grandfather’s mistress.
Then, we’ll head to Puerto Rico with Rosie and Carmen to visit her father Ismael and uncle Monserate, visit old San Juan, Aguadilla, her hometown, and take in the island’s beauty, and visit Viequez.
While there Rosie will hook up with Marta Vega, history professor at Hunter College and director of the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York. Vega is currently in Puerto Rico and will serve as the film’s historical touchstone. She and Rosie will visit various locations. Rosie will engage Vega in discussions about the island’s most important issues. These conversations and others with our featured characters will allow us to organically integrate and animate the short historical sections into our story.
The other person Rosie plans to meet while in Puerto Rico is Lolita Lebron, the radical leader of the Puerto Rican nationalist group that attempted to assassinate President Truman. She was released from jail many years ago, and resides in San Juan.
We are currently narrowing the field of featured characters from the following people: Carmen Serrano, Rosie’s sister, was brought up in Puerto Rico. She lives in Queens and is a chef on disability leave from a catering company. Where Rosie is reserved, Carmen is outgoing.
Robert Stairs, a good friend of Rosie’s, changed his name from Roberto Escalera. He is an entrepreneur who owns a boutique in the Meat Packing district and creates brand design for a variety of high class companies. He has assimilated to the point of hiding his roots, though his mother still comes to his barbecues to make rice and beans. We look forward to asking her why she didn’t teach him Spanish.
Sixto Ramos, Rosie’s cousin, is an undercover New York City police officer and part of the group going to meet the other side of the family in Miami.
Crazy Legs, an old friend, is a break dancer (he was the dancer-double in Flashdance), actor, party planner and more. He will be dancing on the Power 105 float in this year’s Puerto Rican Day Parade. When people ask him if he’s black he says, “No I’m Puerto Rican.” It drives him crazy when people try to place him in one group or another.
Bobbito Garcia, Rosie’s best friend, is a renaissance man, who grew up on the upper west side. He writes a column for Vibe magazine and is a regular DJ at The Apartment. He co-founded “Bounce from the Playground,” a Harlem Globe Trotters-like basketball troupe (with Puerto Ricans, blacks and an Irishman). They perform at NBA half-time shows. Active in street basketball, he’s been sponsored by Nike, acted in seven films and wrote a NYC culture book called Where’d You Get Those. Garcia is thoughtful and articulate, crashing the Puerto Ricans stereotype.
Freddie Feliciano is Rosie's 22 year old cousin who is an auto mechanic in Staten Island. He's young, brash, president of a car club, and so proud to be Puerto Rican. "I'm in the parade every year. I have to." His mother Sylvia is a New York City police officer. She's retiring later this year, so this will be the last time she marches in univorm in the parade. Freddie's sister, Jennifer, is half-Italian. We're hopeful this will be the multi-generational family we follow throughout the year.
Angie Martinez is a DJ at Hot 97 radio. She has issues about not speaking Spanish and being accused of acting black. As a non-black DJ, one of the best, on an black radio station, and a promoter of black music, other Puerto Ricans criticize her.
Each person’s background offers audiences a variety of views of Puerto Ricans today. Some wear their cultural identities for all to see, others have assimilitated completely and are simply proud to call themselves Puerto Ricans, still others don’t even mention they’re Puerto Rican anymore. Robert Stairs tells us, “It’s not a big deal.”
Rosie’s story is unique while being representative of every ethnic group to settle in America. Each family had different ways of assimilating, holding on to their heritage, or rejecting it completely. Our cameras are on the inside of a culture at a very interesting crossroads. It’s a story that will resonate with IFC’s broad audience.
IFC